Puppet MastersS


Arrow Up

The deepening gap between rich and poor: the disgrace of our time

The world cannot continue for long in its current state; the division of wealth is much too unfair.
Rich-Poor Gap
© New Eastern Outlook
At the end of January, representatives of the global and financial elite usually gather in Davos, Switzerland, to discuss the most pressing issues of our time, including the rise of artificial intelligence, extreme weather conditions, misinformation, as well as 'social polarisation'. This euphemism hides glaring inequality and the ever-widening gap between rich and poor, which has reached truly preposterous proportions.

OXFAM, an organisation that evaluates global inequality, pointed out in its latest report that the number of people living in poverty has hardly changed since 1990, but the wealth of billionaires increased by $2 trillion last year compared to 2023 and it grew three times faster than in the previous year. The number of billionaires increased by 204, reaching 2,769 people. Last year, at least 4 new billionaires 'appeared' every week and three fifths of their wealth comes from inheritance, monopoly power or 'clan connections'. In 1820 the income of the 10 richest people in the world was 18 time bigger than the income of 50% of the poorest, but in 2020 it was already 38 times bigger. Around 3.6 billion people (44% of the world's population) live on less than $6.85 a day, a figure that has almost not changed since 1990.

OXFAM estimates that low- and middle-income countries spend almost half of their budgets on debt repayment, with an average of 48%. From 1970 to 2023, the countries of the Global South paid $3.3 trillion in interest to creditors from the states of the Global North. Even a generally prosperous African country like Angola spends 58% of government revenue on debt servicing. The ever-widening gap between rich and poor, according to some political scientists, is a disgrace to the modern world and a constant source of acute tension. Life expectancy in Africa is just under 64 years, compared with 79+ in Europe. Per capita income in sub-Saharan Africa has declined by more than 10% from $1,936 in 2014 to $1,700 in 2023.

Star of David

Will the real Holocaust survivor please stand up?

For those convinced there are no moments of amazement left in the West-East conflict, this report shows we are not out of the woods yet. The elites, desperate to prop up their waning world order, always seem able to dig up a story to either dehumanise Russia or its leader, Vladimir Putin. This one, for me, literally takes the cake.
Roman Shvartsman
© New Eastern Outlook
In the latest geopolitical circus act, the liberal order managed to drag a Jewish Ukrainian in front of the German parliament to support continued support for Kyiv and Zelensky against mean old Putin and the Russians. Sorry, the quote from 88-year-old Roman Shvartsman is another comparison of two polar opposites, Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Putin. Here is what Shvartsman said:
"Back then (WW2) Hitler wanted to kill me because I am Jew. Now Putin wants to kill me because I am a Ukrainian."
If you're familiar with the reasons for, and the goals of Russia's military intervention in Ukraine, I've no doubt your alarm sirens went off like mine did. Why would a Jew, the head of who was allegedly rescued from a Nazi concentration camp by the Red Army, speak of a Russian leader in this way? Does it seem unusual that the Chairman of the Odesa regional Association of Jews, given that Banderites have overrun the city during the Euromaidan and since? Shvartsman's comments, at the place and time they would do the most "good" where Zelensky is concerned, urged me to dig further.

Bullseye

Early-morning email tells USAID workers to stay home while Musk 'spent the weekend feeding it into the wood chipper'

Musk doge usaid woodchipper meme
Let the memes commence!
It's happening fast after Sunday statements of Elon Musk confirming President Trump "agreed" to shut USAID down... USAID's headquarters in Washington D.C. has been closed for the day on Monday, with employees receiving an early morning email telling them to remain at home.

Musk says the agency has effectively been shut down. The email, which is now widely circulating on social media postings, was sent from Gavin Kliger via an official usaid.gov. address. He is one among the twenty-somethings assisting Musk in implementing Trump's order to slash foreign aid and stop waste.

Comment: Gravy train derailed: Has Trump's executive order just crippled the global US regime change network?


USA

Elon Musk Says USAID 'Criminal', Trump Calls Its Leaders 'Radical Lunatics'

Elon Musk and Donald Trump
USAID, an independent agency established by an act of Congress, manages a budget of $42.8 billion.
The United States Agency for International Development has "been run by a bunch of radical lunatics, and we're getting them out", Trump said.

Elon Musk attacked the US Agency for International Development, calling it a "criminal organisation" on Sunday, as Donald Trump said the agency was "run by radical lunatics" and said he was considering its future.

The assault on the agency tasked with humanitarian relief overseas marks a significant new front in Trump's move to give unprecedented power Musk to upend government departments and counter what the pair consider wasteful official spending and overreach.

The United States Agency for International Development has "been run by a bunch of radical lunatics, and we're getting them out... and then we'll make a decision (on its future)," Trump said on Sunday without elaborating.
"USAID is a criminal organisation," Musk, the billionaire owner of Tesla and SpaceX who has become the president's most powerful backer, wrote on his X platform, replying to a video alleging USAID involvement in "rogue CIA work" and "internet censorship."
In a subsequent post, Musk doubled down and, without giving evidence, asked his 215 million X followers, "Did you know that USAID, using YOUR tax dollars, funded bioweapon research, including Covid-19, that killed millions of people?"

Comment: See also:


MAGA

Trump Effect Continues: Panama Bends The Knee, Will Not Renew 'Silk Road' Deal With China After Rubio Visit

trump
The Trump administration is not messing around.

Let's review. In the past thirteen days;
  • Elon Musk's DOGE descended upon the US Treasury and revealed that we've been 'auto paying' all sorts of bad actors, including terrorist groups. DOGE then kicked the door down at Deep State slush fund USAID, where employees were placed on paid leave last week for trying to circumvent Trump's orders, causing a massive Democrat freakout.
  • Secretary of State Marco Rubio sent a worldwide cable announcing the end of DEI policies within State, prioritizing American interests, and told his Chinese counterpart that America is done kowtowing.

Putin

European leaders will 'wag tails' for Trump - Putin

US President Donald Trump.
© Joe Raedle / Getty ImagesFILE PHOTO: US President Donald Trump.
Opponents of the new US leader's political trajectory within the bloc will soon be brought to heel, the Russian president believes

The EU has always taken its political cues from Washington and will continue doing so with Donald Trump in office, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said. Despite some EU leaders actively opposing Trump's election, the newly inaugurated president "will restore order" and bring the bloc to heel "quite quickly," Putin believes.

The Russian president made the remarks on Sunday in an interview to Russia-1 TV journalist Pavel Zarubin.

Comment:
And all of them, you'll see, soon all of them will stand at the master's feet and gently wag their tails," Putin argued.
Here the EU leaders are compared to "something" that can wag a tail. There is much truth in this description.

For another accurate evaluation, recall that Victoria Nuland, the US 25th Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, in 2014 became know for her: "F**k the EU". It also described the overall relationship, as it was then rather well.

If Being a US 'ally' means silently watching your own destruction how many leaders in the EU understand that, not to mention resist it?


Bad Guys

Flashback Black box: Global censorship hub NED reached agreement with State Department to conceal government grants from the public

CIA NED national endowment for democracy

Comment: Since this article was published, Trump's administration has begun ripping the lid off that black box. This piece is a sobering reminder of how bad things are.


SUMMARY
  • The National Endowment for Democracy is a grantmaking organization that receives substantially all of its $300 million annual budget from the State Department's congressional appropriations.
  • In recent years, investigators and watchdog groups like FFO have faced difficulty locating NED's grantees and projects, despite NED having a federal mandate to operate openly and share grantee information with the public.
  • Audits of the NED for FY 2021, 2022, and 2023 reveal NED continuously failed to publish grant project information publicly, violating the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act.
  • NED entered an unusual agreement with their Department of State Grants Officer to label the entirety of their $315 million congressional appropriation for 2024 "sensitive," allowing them to hide all U.S. taxpayer-funded NED grantee information and activities from the public.
  • NED rebuffed an offer from the State Department to review its subgrantees on a case-by-case basis, removing another layer of democratic oversight from its activities.
  • It expects to never be subject to ordinary transparency requirements again, with taxpayers almost completely in the dark about how its $300-million budget - which has been used in the past to advance a global regime of online censorship with blowback against Americans - is spent
The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) has since at least 2021 failed to comply with transparency requirements regarding the more than $300 million of taxpayer funding it receives from the U.S. Department of State, potentially violating federal regulations under 22 CFR 67.4 and the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act (FFATA).

In recent years, NED failed to take any corrective action regarding failures to report their grantmaking activities publicly. NED's Financial Report for FY23 reveals that NED and Department of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL) leadership assessed these transparency failures to "determine a long-term resolution."

Comment: Between Trump's cutting off of funds and Musk's DOGE intention to go through government spending with a fine-tooth comb, it's not likely that the NED will be able to survive as an organization, at least in its present form.




SOTT Logo Radio

SOTT Focus: NewsReal: Trump Transition Turbulence: TWO Air Accidents - Plane Madness

washington plane helicopter collision philadelphia jet newsreal
© Sott.net
Two air accidents a couple of days apart, one in the heart of Washington DC, the other in Philadelphia... one may have been an accident, but both? Also on this NewsReal, tense times in the Senate as Trump's MAGA nominations - RFK Jr, Tulsi Gabbard and Kash Patel - are grilled, and trouble on the horizon for empire-lovers as Trump's tariffs kick off in earnest.


Running Time: 02:19:06

Download: MP3 — 127 MB


Bullseye

Gravy train derailed: Has Trump's executive order just crippled the global US regime change network?

USAID workers
© Gustavo Castillo / THE TIMEUSAID workers in Venezuela in 2019
With federal funding paused to USAID, pro-Western media outlets from Ukraine to Nicaragua are panhandling for donations, and a multi-billion dollar regime change apparatus is in panic mode.

Among the flurry of executive orders issued by President Donald Trump in the first days of his administration, perhaps the most consequential to date is one titled, "reevaluating and realigning US foreign aid."

Under this order, a 90-day pause was instantly enforced on all US foreign development assistance across the globe - excepting, of course, the largest recipients of US aid in Israel and Egypt. For now, the order forbids the disbursement of federal funding for any "non-governmental organizations, international organizations, and contractors" charged with delivering US "aid" programs overseas.

Arrow Up

Trump slaps 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico, 10% on China

TrumpTariffs
© pgurus.com/KJN"Still friends?"
On February 1, the Trump administration will slap 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico, and a 10% tariff on China, as announced during Friday's press briefing by White House spox Karoline Leavitt, denying reports of a delay to March 1.
There will be no delay, selective targeting, or slow roll-out of phased-in tariffs as speculated by Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank. That said, there could be certain exemptions - such as for oil and gas, which Leavitt did not elaborate on. For now, all we have to go on is Trump's most recent comments on oil.